Your Dying Spouse 683 - Keep On Swimming {FMF}

Well, gee. I can't turn my head to the right anymore. There's a tumour in the way.

So, like the eye-patched Nick Fury in the Avengers films, when I want to see something on that side, I turn.

"Sounds exhausting," said Tony Stark.

It is.

But, whatever. You do what you can until you have to do what you must.

I'm swimming very far from shore,

beyond the outer reef,

bottom's a thousand fathoms, more,

and kraken rides beneath.

I feel the salt in the spray,

and it mingles with my tears

that are quickly washed away

leaving just my fears.

I'm tossed and turned, spun about

and dropped from crest to trough,

with no one to hear cry or shout

but the wandering albatross.

Chin up, lad, swim on, be brave,

till Jesus walks out on the wave.

If you want to read about real courage, the ultimate keep-on-swimming attitude, look to Paul Batura's wonerful tribute to Alex Trebek.

And, of course, the musical theme has to be provided by Dory from Finding Nemo...

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.

Your Dying Spouse 682 - No Yesterday, No Tomorrow

And so another really terrifying night, and I am so far past a reluctance to admit to fear.

But the thing about both pain and fear is that the bind you to the present, an that's not a bad thing. Memories can't drag you back, and in a sensed rug you with memory, and the future's opium-pipe of striving is doused.

You've got to be there, in the moment.

Win or lose.

I don't look forward, don't look back,

it only matters where I am.

History's bunk, the future's jack

and I have no master plan.

I've got no golden photo-past

to leaf through the days of yore

for things are moving very fast,

and yesterday's a bore.

Likewise it seems the coming days

will be harder than I want to face,

I'll have to trust to find the ways

to counter death's embrace.

You think me an odd, nihilistic duck,

but today's the day to make my luck.

Here's Bob Seeger, with Still The Same.

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.

Your Dying Spouse 681 - Beyond Tomorrow

It's kind of a mark of decline when 'the good old days' were last week.

What I could do then, I can't do now. What I could hope for then seems out of reach today.

But somehow, one goes on. For God, for family, for country.

I just heard a TV preacher say, "We're going to praise God for what He's about to do in our life."

Wrong.

We praise God for Who He Is.

Beyond the last tomorrow,

beyond the sea of stars,

beyond the strength I borrow,

an offering to Mars.

Beyond the pain and darkness,

beyond the coming light,

beyond a heart that hearkens

to the joy found in the fight.

Beyond victorious battle,

beyond the vale of tears,

beyond the sad death-rattle,

lie the corpses of the years.

And I will walk beyond this day

in the steps of He who showed the way.

And here's Perry Como, with his lovely ballad...wait for it...Beyond Tomorrow.

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.

Your Dying Spouse 680 - God of Love and Pain {FMF}

Life's unfair sometimes, and I'm pretty upset with God right now, for Barb's dear friends Caryn and Robert must move away, to Texas.

At the same time, her father, in Indiana, is in his last days

She's hurting.

Why, God? She's such a good person. Her heart is in Your service, and You pull this?

What's happening to me, I don't mind. Cancer, schmantzer, it's just a speed bump in life, and it's fatal, but so what?

"Dying is the day worth living for."

 - Captain Hector Barbossa, from "Pirates of the Carribean 3"

But to have pieces of the heart of omeone you love visibly torn away...

None of the pat answers I have for myself seem to fit, and it seems vulgar to even trot them out.

All there is is a question in the dark.

And the sound of falling raindrops, as God weeps with us.

Sometimes I do not understand

the God of love and pain,

who places blessings in the hand,

then takes them back again.

I do not want life's bitter changes

that arrive at the worst of times

brought by a God who re-arranges

life and love for Adam's crimes.

I do not want the aching growth

that is duly forced on me

even though this is His troth

to raise me up, and set me free.

I do not want to say goodbye

for I'm afraid to see God cry.

Music from Switchfoot, with Love Alone is Worth the Fight.

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.

Your Dying Spouse 679 - Christ's Comfort Is At Risk

Politics is decidely not my bag. Yes, I have some strong opinions, and if you've been here awhile you can guess at them ("Molon labe!"), but this is not the place to air them.

But.

In the process of dying, I have found my comfort and my hope in Christianity, and it's beyond distressing that that the Warren an Burger Court decisions and the "Lemon Test" have made the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment a tool to persecute Christians for their faith. (And let it be noted that in Europe, parts of the Bible are considered 'hate speech', and pastors have been jailed for airing them.)

We deserve better than this, and if this country's values are not rooted in the principles that were outlined in 1776, with the explicit nod to a 'Creator', we are doomed to a vacuity of purpose, and a complete abrogation of principle to the excercise of expediency.

The government has no right to condemn faith, and thereby hope.

Don't let them.

Yes, my friends, you're vilified,

there are those who would our faith forbid,

and mandate comfort be denied

in a world of which Christ is rid.

I find my hope and faith in He

whose life's is Word's culmination,

but comes, soon, the victory

to whom God is abomination.

He's banished from the public square,

and many call the Good Book 'hate';

we are belaboured everywhere

with loathing that does not abate.

I fear this land becomes a bust,

a mockery of "In God We Trust."

Over to Mercy Me, with Greater. This is a fun video!

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.